Yep, all these services basically exist off the back of their userbases, and practically all their value comes from the content submitted by the people that use

Yep, all these services basically exist off the back of their userbases, and practically all their value comes from the content submitted by the people that use them for free. And this makes it rather interesting to hear complaints about working for exposure or free or what not. Yes, that's a bad deal, but it's really also the same deal you're agreeing to when you heavily use these 'social media' sites and platforms. You're saying you'll provide a ton of content for free on the assumption that just maybe, some of those millions/billions of users will check it out on your own site and help you make money. And YouTube and other sites with monetisation requirements may actually be worse in some extent. Think about it, YouTube's basically like a bad internship; work for free for a few months, then if you're good enough maybe we'll decide to pay you. But hey, I guess those millions/billions of users are too tempting for many.